Centenary Institute was a school in Summerfield, Alabama operated by the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

, from 1829 until the 1880s. The Centenary Institute was founded in 1829 as Valley Creek Academy, a local school, but was turned over to the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1838. In celebration of the centennial of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, the school was renamed the "Centenary Institute". A. H. Mitchell served as president of the institute from 1843 until 1856. In 1845, the school was conferred the power to grant

degrees Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

, and graduated its first class that same year. For the next two decades, the school was the largest in central Alabama, enrolling approximately 500 students. J. N. Montgomery was president from 1856 until the Civil War; he was followed by Richard H. Rivers, William J. Vaughn, and R. K. Hargrove. The Institute saw its fortunes decline precipitously during the war; by 1865 buildings were in need of repair, and in 1867 the school saw but three graduates. The

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "L ...

impacted the school further, driving enrollment to fifty by 1874–75. In 1880, the Methodists ceased supporting the school, and the Institute began to act solely as a local school. The institute was abandoned by 1885, and its buildings were used as an orphan asylum. I. M. E. Blandin, '' History of Higher Education of Women in the South, Prior to 1860'', (New York: Washington, Neale Pub. Co., 1909), 87-89; Bob Parrott,
Centenary Institute
, retrieved January 27, 2009.

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